Today's Sports

The National Football League seems destined to wind up as the NBA did a decade ago: unloved because of coddled bad characters. Let’s take a little peek at history. The NBA thrived during the Magic-Larry-Michael years. It had rich, national television contracts with the likes of NBC.

I was thrilled to see Padraig Harrington win the British Open last weekend.

The fact that Harrington is an Irishman was only partially responsible for my happiness.

Chiefly, I was happy because Harrington was able to overtake Greg Norman, and ruin the story-within-a-story of Norman's honeymoon.

For those of you who haven't heard about this, I offer the Cliffs Notes version of the tale, forthwith: Norman gets married and honeymoons in Scotland. While there, he plays in the British Open, nearly winning it.

Last week's camp showed that soccer is becoming a more popular pursuit in the southern part of Bedford County, and that the feeder pipe into Staunton River High School is filled with promising players.

The week-long camp placed an emphasis on fundamentals but seemed to do so in a way that made the learning fun for the 40 campers that attended the camp, which was held at the high school. The instruction was aimed at the 6-11 year old range of players.

While the sounds that punctuate summertime are typically those of the "ping" of bat on a ball or the "punt" of shoe leather on a soccer ball, another sound resonated in Bedford last week: The "boing?"of a basketball on pavement.

Players of varying ages and talent showed up at the HOOPS Kids camp, at the Edmund Street Park in Bedford City. "Idle time is the biggest problem we have for our kids," said Camp Director Jerome Battle. "The purpose of the camp is to get the kids something to do, first and foremost."

There’s a Bedford-born soon-to-be millionaire who doesn’t give a hoot about money, other than the cost of oats.

Tidewaterdragonfly, a four-year-old pacing mare, recently won the $400,000 Roses Are Red Stakes at Mohawk Racetrack in Ontario, Canada. The win pushed “Fly’s” lifetime earnings close to $900,000 with nine wins. The winning horse, or more accurately its owners, collects half of the booty at a stakes race.

Last Friday, I wrote this week's column on how the media was being cruel to the fans of Green Bay and to Brett Favre by continuing to run with rumors. This weekend, Favre basically verified every single rumor about him, causing me to go to re-write. I hate that.

But not as much as Rodgers must hate the specter of Favre hanging around.

With baseball?s All-Star game upon us, please allow me to rant a bit on how the selection of starting players takes place.

In essence, my case is that you, the fan, should lose your right to vote.

Look at the situation in the American League. Boston Red Sox players were in the top four in popularity at every single position. Some of this is justified. I?d certainly vote for Big Pappy and Jason Varitek.

Jedd Zaring has one major goal, among others, for his annual Blue Ridge Soccer Academy summer camp. ?I like to bring in guys who can demonstrate what a good player looks like,? said the head coach of the Jefferson Forest boys? program.

This year, the coach?s wish came through in spades with the appearance of Jeff Carroll at the camp, held last week at Sweet Briar College.

Carroll is a member of the Major Soccer League?s DC United, one of the premier teams at the nation?s highest level of soccer.